Arenanet announced last week that the next Guild Wars 2 expansion, Path of Fire, will take players back to the Crystal Desert. The game’s fans have already created a video detailing the strange land’s lore.
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The video by fan site The Krytan Herald is perfect as a refresher for a veteran player, or for newer players who just want to get stuck into the new expansion when it releases on September 22nd 2017. The video explores the lore of the area, starting from when the Crystal Desert was originally called the Crystal Sea, and follows the story all the way up to tie into the release of the new expansion.
The history of the area is incredibly interesting. Thousands of years ago, the Crystal Desert was an ocean, home to the races of the Forbidden and the seafaring Margonites who built a large empire over the many islands. At the centre of the sea was a large stone monolith, said by legend and prophecy to house great secrets and dark power.
However, in the year 0 of the Guild Wars universe calendar, the ancient gods left Tyria after a fight between five of them, and the sixth god Abaddon. As they left, they raised the floor and drained the sea. The Margonites died out shortly after, and what was once a beautiful tropical sea became a barren arid wasteland, where closer examination will show the grains of sand are actually individual crystals. Populated by wrecks and harsh winds, the Crystal Desert is now an unforgiving and ever-changing setting.
The Crystal Desert was originally a playable zone filled with five towns and a handful of missions. It represented a harsh nomadic community, taking a lot of inspiration and terms from an early episode of Stargate’s season five titled Ascension. In this episode, a civilisation is helped by a more advanced group in order to advance their power, but in the end is wiped out and leaves just a shadow of their former selves behind.
The zone has also been hinted at in the past. Guild Wars 2’s in-game Bazaar had hints within the lore that points to traders coming in from the Crystal Desert. Players have also been able to glitch with parties into a flat desert space off the map edge where the Crystal Desert would occupy. Hopefully the Crystal Desert lives up to the success of the game’s last expansion, Heart of Thorns, when it arrives in September.
What do you think about the upcoming expansion and setting? Let us know!